Write. Click. Scrapbook.

School Transportation

Welcome back for day two of our school week. Today we are going to document our school transportation. Do your kids ride the bus? Do they walk? do you drive them? Let's make a page about it. Mine ride the bus. Sometimes. When they don't miss it. (We might not be the fastest in the morning.)

As you are putting your page together, consider recording the time they get out of the house, the driver, funny things that happen on the way to school, anything that they might want to remember later. And if it takes more than just one page, that's okay too!

 

Have a fabulous day!

School Begins Again.

For many of us, school is now in a good rhythm. First days were photographed. First outfits have been washed. First nerves are calmed. And now all that's left is the recording!!

This week, I thought we might brainstorm some ideas for creating pages about school. Not just first day pages, but of course, that is a fabulous place to start. So let's! shall we?

 

I think back-to-school pictures are a timeless thing. They transcend hobbies, hometowns, or decades. Everyone just seems to take them. I had a neighbor who got her camera out for Halloween, Christmas, Easter, and the first day of school. 

So let's think of all the things we could do with a first day photo:

• the stats: height, weight, shoe size
• likes/dislikes
• favorites
• life right now
• current trends
• all about

So many things to write about. Which one will you choose?

For the big, I decided to to a moment in time. A sentence for where we were, a sentence for where we are going, and a few extras. Nothing fancy.

 

For the middle, I talked a bit about how she put a smile on despite her fears for the day.

 

How about you? Will you make a first day layout? Or maybe you already have. I'd love to see them!

Making a vacation album: alternate albums

This week I have been sharing my process for making a vacation album:

Monday: Memorabilia and journaling

Tuesday: Organizing the album

Wednesday: Selection photos

Thursday: Layouts

Friday: Alternate albums

As you can see, today I am sharing vacation albums that break the mold from what I usually do.

First, every year I ask my family what their five favorite things from vacation were and put them in an album. Here is one from a few years back:

This mini album usually tides me over until I have time to scrap the full album, but I don't see why you couldn't use this to represent your whole vacation.

I also did something different when we didn't go on a big vacation and instead camped for a week, the same vacation as the mini album above. That year I did a pocket page 6x8 album. Here are some pages:

I used October Afternoon's Daily Flash and Pebbles' Great Outdoors Project Life Cards for the most part.

This completes my vacation week! I hope I shared something this week that inspired you to scrapbook. If so, please share what you did!

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Making a vacation album: layouts

Today is the fourth day I am sharing my process for making a vacation album. Here's the schedule for the week:

Monday: Memorabilia and journaling

Tuesday: Organizing the album

Wednesday: Selection photos

Thursday: Layouts

Friday: Alternate albums

Today I share how I go from photos to finished layouts. First, I make my vacation albums 8.5x11, and I generally use the same design on every page:

When I printed photos for each layout, I printed 2-3 4x6 photos for the title page and journaling (keeping in mind I would have to physically trim them to make them fit) and I printed the full page collage on an 8.5x11 inch print with some white space for a border.

As for products, I tend to select just one line for the album, so I buy it, plus some extra papers and embellishments that I really like and store it with my ephemera. Then, when I am ready to make the album, I don't have to search for products. My vacation album from Disney in 2010 used October Afternoon's Boarding Pass:

My vacation album from South Dakota in 2011 used October Afternoon's Sasparilla:

My album from Maine in 2012 used Fancy Pants' Nautical:

And the album I will make for our 2013 trip to Glacier and Spokane will use Fancy Pants' Happy-go-Lucky.

You can see from my pages that I tend to house the whole page on alternating shades of cardstock and I use strips of patterned paper and clusters of embellishments. Using the same design and one line keeps the album cohesive and easy to make.

And that's my process for designing the layouts! Tomorrow I will share two ways I scrapbook vacation that break the pattern.

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Making a vacation album: selecting photos

Hello again! It's Jennifer Larson, continuing to share my process for creating vacation albums. Here again is the week's schedule:

Monday: Memorabilia and journaling

Tuesday: Organizing the album

Wednesday: Selection photos

Thursday: Layouts

Friday: Alternate albums

Today I'll talk about possibly the most time-consuming, and for me least fun, part of the process: deciding which photos I'll use in the album.

I use the list I made yesterday to organize my photo selection.  I'll take a chapter subject--the road out, for example--then look through PSE and open all the photos I like and that tell the story in PSE Editor. Next, I'll select the 2-3 best photos and crop them to 4x6; these I'll use on the same page as the title and journaling. Of the rest, I'll narrow it down to the best photos and the ones that tell the story best. Once I do, I will make a multi photo collage on an 8.5x11 inch base to take up an entire page. Here's a video:

How to create a multiple-photo collage using PSE 10 from Jennifer Larson on Vimeo.

From experience, I know that the collage best fits no more than 11-13 photos. If I don't have that many, I make fewer spots; at times I'll fill a spot with patterned paper and embellishments.

As I mentioned yesterday, I tend to put a family photo from vacation on the first page and a few photos that didn't make the 

Thanks for visiting! Tomorrow I'll discuss how I take the photos and finish the pages.

 

Making a vacation album: organizing the album

Hello! It's Jennifer Larson again, sharing more about my process for creating vacation albums. Here's the schedule for the week again:

Monday: Memorabilia and journaling

Tuesday: Organizing the album

Wednesday: Selection photos

Thursday: Layouts

Friday: Alternate albums

And today I'll talk about how I go about organizing the album.

Though I take notes during the vacation day by day, I don't create an album organized by days. Instead, I open up my vacation photos in PSE and browse through them to see what I took photos of:

(Note: I do not tag any photos when I import them. I probably should, but I generally remember the year and month things happened, so I just scroll until I find those pictures. It may be a little more time consuming, but doing this sometimes helps me discover long-buried stories along the way, which makes me happy).

Once I find the photos, I scroll through them, taking notes of themes that I can turn into layouts. For example, in my camping albums, I often have a page about our campsite, plus ones of various hikes we went on, locations we visited, and any water activities we did. Here's how I have tentatively organized the vacation album I'm working on for Glacier/Spokane:

1. Title page and contents (I always put a family photo on this page)
2. The road out
3. St. Mary's Campground
4. Hike with Mel and Dean (this title will change; I have to look in my journaling for the name of the trail)
5. Waterfalls (this will probably be a four-page layout because of the number of pictures and the depth of the story)
6. Logan Pass
7. Fish Creek Campground
8. Bowman Lake backcountry camping (this too will be four pages)
9. Polebridge (not sure this will be a spread, but it was memorable, so I have a placeholder)
10. Mel's house
11. Spokane (this might be 4 pages)
12. Dean's house
13. Looking back (on the last page I usually put a couple favorite photos, often taken from behind, with a quotation that seems to capture the vacation)

 Now that I have decided the subject for each layout, I am ready to start selecting photos for each layout. I'll share my process for that tomorrow!

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GIVEAWAY: WINNER!

Thank you for commenting to win a digital stamp set! By a random number generator Sandy Ross is our lucky winner! Yay! Please email: [email protected] to claim your prize!

Thank you for a fun week!

Lisa

Making a vacation album: memorabilia and journaling

Hello! It's Jennifer Larson. Since the monthly theme is vacationers, I wanted to share my process for creating a vacation album. I've shared my vacation albums before, but I am looking at it more fully from the beginning of the planning stages this time, and I've started trying something new that I'd like to share later this week. Here's the plan for the week:

Monday: Memorabilia and journaling

Tuesday: Organizing the album

Wednesday: Selection photos

Thursday: Layouts

Friday: Alternate albums

When I go on vacation, I usually keep a shopping bag in the car tucked under a front seat for memorabilia and ephemera: postcards, maps, stickers, etc. When I get home, I put them in a Craft Keeper or Iris container until I'm ready to make the album. Here's one I am working on right now from 2013, our trip to Glacier National Park and Spokane:

And the one I started for this year's vacation to Maine:

After I select the album I will use to scrap the vacation, I glue an envelope into the back of the album, cutting the flap off before I do. Then I cull the memorabilia/ephemera, keeping only the ones that accompany the story best, and I put them in the envelope, sort of as a last chapter for the vacation. Here's what I did for Glacier/Spokane:

While vacationing, I usually take a small notebook and write lists of memorable details that happen every day. When we return home, I tear out the pages and put them in the Craft Keeper with the ephemera. When I'm ready to make the layouts, I use these lists to recreate the vacation, even if I make the album years later. I'll discuss this more on Thursday.

That's it for today! Tomorrow I'll be back to share my process for organizing the album.

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Maximize your stamps Day 5: Non-birthday projects

 Welcome back! Today marks the last day of blogging about how you can use your stamp set from Kellie Stamps.  I hope that you have enjoyed all the tips and tricks as much as I have and that you don´t forget to enter the giveaway from yesterday! Today I wanted to share a few non-birthday related projects from me and the some of the other DT members from Kellie Stamps. Enjoy!

Alexandria made this great pocket page spread! 

The challenge is using theme products for projects that don't match that theme. I picked my photos for the week, and chose one digital stamp for each photo that I could use as a jumping off point for the journaling. I lowered the opacity so I could see a bit of the photo through the words, and placed them in the center of each photo. I made simple black and white 3x4 cards to match, and added simple little chipboard pieces to each photo.

 

Diane is back today sharing this fun pocket page! 

"It's easy to use 'themed' digital stamps on a regular week of Project Life! With just a small amount of modification and a few embellishments, I used a birthday-themed set from Kellie Stamps on a pretty ordinary week. Sometimes those ordinary moments deserve just as much celebration as the big events!"

Diane also share process videos on her Youtube channel. Here is the link to the video for this page!

Julie worked in the Project Life app to make these pages.

Highlighting some of our summer favorites in this Project Life app layout. All of these photos are also in my Little Summer JOY album, but I wanted to bring them into our family Photobook as well because, truly, they're some of our biggest highlights from the summer. Our favorite spots, favorite moments, favorite things.

 

I made this simple pocket page that will go into my regular scrapbooking album. I really think that the sentiment of "celebrate" can be used in so many ways, don´t you?

What did I tell you? I think I can use this stamp set over and over again without getting tired of it! 

Have a great weekend and thank you for stopping by!

Lisa

 

 

Welcome, September!

New gallery day! You have patiently waited for a new gallery. And now it is here! Please enjoy The Vacationers! Remember, you can see the layouts in more detail and have the journaling if you click on over to the photo album!

Water by Aliza

12 x 12 | materials cardstock (Bazzill Basics Paper) + journal cards (Ali Edwards Designs) + wood veneers (Studio Calico, Ali Edwards) + fonts (TravelingTypewriter)

A Note from Aliza
I am a pretty straight, on the grid scrapper. So setting all the elements on an angle is pretty wild and crazy for me. But I love the way it turned out.

 

 

The Vacationers by Lisa

8.5 x 11 | materials cardstock (Staples) + patterned paper (Pink Paislee) + card (Project Life kit Happy place) + stamp (Studio Calico) + washi (Panduro Hobby)

A Note from Lisa
This layout came together by itself. It follows such a simple design I could use it for every page. It makes me happy!

September Fun Fact
I started scrapbooking in 1999 when my daughter was born. Yesterday marked 17 years…

 

 

Loved This Adventure by Aliza

12 x 12 | materials cardstock (Bazzill Basics) + patterned paper (Kesi Art, Kaiser Craft) + stickers (Fancy Pants Designs, Pretty Little Studio) + fonts (traveling typewriter)

A Note from Aliza
We did not travel much this summer, but this hike was quite glorious, and it was enough to make us feel like we were on vacation.

Journaling
Storm King Mountain. This was our second time hiking here, and first time with all 4 of us, completing a whole trail. There was climbing up and down rocks, amazing views, twisty trails in a tree covered forest, some exhaustion and crankiness, then an even better view from what we think was the top of the mountain, and then more climbing down rocks to get back down. Everyone (!) enjoyed the challenge. Sam brought his Go Pro and has been helping with some of the picture-taking responsibilities.

September Fun Fact
One son is leaving to study in Israel for the year, and one is beginning high school. How time flies.

 

I Didn't Love Paris by Amy

12 x 12 | materials patterned paper (Pink Paislee) + alphabet stickers (Heidi Swapp) + font (Elsie Swash Caps Black) + gold pen (Pilot Juice Gel)

A Note from Amy
After I wrote this journaling I thought "Could I sound any more whiny? Complaining about being in Paris?" but I stayed with it because it was my authentic response. On a design note, I love adding gold (or silver, or grey) lines to fussy cut flowers. It adds a little extra pop and helps it to feel like it's more mine.

September Fun Fact
It's September! Is there anything more exciting than the arrival of autumn?